“There are two lasting bequests we can give our children: One is roots, the other is wings.” Teaching children values and giving them the opportunity to excel is essential to good parenting. However, I feel I must also provide my children (and myself) insight into the ones who came before us: our ancestors whose lives and stories have shaped us into who we are. This is my journey; these are their stories…

Caimi-Culatina Line

Hey creative writers and/or family historians! Have you ever needed an itty-bitty bit of inspiration to kickstart your creativity?

If so, then you might want to check out these two sites. The first is Tales of a Family. Each month, blogger Ann Marie Bryant offers a weekly or bi-weekly creative writing/family history suggestion. Because of her writing challenges, I have pushed myself to include more personal narratives in my blog. For that, I thank her.

Or, is genealogy blogging more your style? Then, 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks just might be your cup of tea. Each week, Amy Johnson Crow offers a new topic to help you tell your family’s stories. Although I do not regularly participate in the 52 Weeks challenges—mostly because I already have a ton of tales waiting to be put to pen, I did find this week’s prompt promising: Unusual Names.

In life’s travels, we often take side trips. Some side trips prove to be integral aspects of our life’s journey, as in higher education, career choices, marriage, and having children. Others prove to be enlightening and exciting diversions.

In this series, Passport to the World, I will revisit some of my life’s travels. My travels have helped me discover unknown aspects of myself and have demanded that I challenge my self-imposed boundaries and limits. Because of my travels, I am learning to walk beyond who I am and embrace change.

I have always been fascinated by language, specifically where it originates and how it adapts, mutates, and relates to other languages. That is why I found the recent series of blogs by Andrew’s Kindred so intriguing. It combined my love of etymology with my love of genealogy. I was so inspired, in fact, that I decided to try my to try my hand at chronicling the origins of our families’ surnames.

This is the eleventh installment of a series of posts documenting the etymology of many of our families’ surnames (recent and distant, direct and indirect.)

I have always been fascinated by language, specifically where it originates and how it adapts, mutates, and relates to other languages. That is why I found the recent series of blogs by Andrew’s Kindred so intriguing. It combined my love of etymology with my love of genealogy. I was so inspired, in fact, that I decided to try my hand at chronicling the origins of our families’ surnames.

This is the seventh installment of a series of posts documenting the etymology of many of our families’ surnames (recent and distant, direct and indirect.)

I have always been fascinated by language, specifically where it originates and how it adapts, mutates, and relates to other languages. That is why I found the recent series of blogs by Andrew’s Kindred so intriguing. It combined my love of etymology with my love of genealogy. I was so inspired, in fact, that I decided to try my hand at chronicling the origins of our families’ surnames.

This is the third installment of a series of posts documenting the etymology of many of our families’ surnames (recent and distant, direct and indirect.)

Now that the B names have been documented (Finally, hallelujah!), next up is the letter C. Thankfully, there are way fewer C surnames in our families, so here goes: